Monologue Mania Day # 222 by Janet S. Tiger Last Scene (Crime) Sept. 22, 2014 Welcome to Monologue Mania- one new free monologue a day - for a whole year!Note: A few words about 'free' - all these monologues are protected under copyright law and are free to read, free to perform and video as long as no money is charged. Once you charge admission or a donation, or include my work in an anthology, you need to contact me for royalty info. If you just started this blog and want to read the earlier monologues, pleasescroll down for the previous days or go to http://www.monologuestore.com/ -click on the Monologue Mania button please scroll down. To start at the beginning - Feb. 13, - click here. For a list of the blurbs from each day, click hereHelp a playwright and get more great award-winning monologues - MonologueZone.comThank you for your comments - and for liking and sharing this site---------------------------------------------------------------------------

On TV, the wrong person is convicted half the time. But the sad fact is that most people convicted did the crime......not on TV of course, but in real life.

Sometimes......there is a doubt. I've had a few cases that left that doubt in my head.....not a lot ....less than the fingers on one hand. In three of those four cases, it turns out my doubt was wrong. They had done it....in two of the three, others had helped.

The third, well that was weird - the person who was supposed to be dead, was actually alive, and had tried to collect the insurance using another name. The supposed murderer was supposed to get half the money, but when the dead guy wouldn't pay up, the murderer spilled the beans. It was an oddity, but kind of funny, which can only happen when the dead person turns up alive.

(He turns serious)

It was the fourth case......

(He clicks on the slide show)

I guess, I guess I just never believed this guy Clark was a killer. After awhile you get gut instincts about people, and some people you can't see killing anyone.But he was a drunk and the blood was all over him. And he had the knife in his hand, and all he could remember was....nothing.

There was no real motive, but drunks don't need a motive.

He was truly remorseful, cried at the sentencing, said he liked the old guy, didn't want to kill him, was sorry.

I remember, he had a wife, and he had a little girl, maybe seven, eight years old, and the mother would bring the kid to the trial, and I thought it stunk. But then, one day, I heard her tell the kid that she didn't believe the father did it, and she was gonna stick by him, even though he was a drunk. (Imitates woman) Baby. your Daddy may be a drunk, God knows he is a drunk!..... but he's no killer, he just gets sad when he's drunk......we'll visit him whenever we can.....'

Never forgot that. Stayed in touch with them. The little girl grew up into a nice young lady, and then, I get a call from my friend......I'd told her about my case, and she told me about Bertha Johnston. And then she told me the rest.

You see, the man who killed Bertha was implicated in five other deaths. His fingerprints were there.

Now in the TV shows, there's a lot of car chases and scary arrests and policemen and women getting kidnapped and their friend and family threatened - all kinds of stuff that rarely happens in this country, thank God.

In real life, the arrest is often.....what's a good word...anti-climactic. That's how it was with Bertha's killer. He was stopped for a routine automobile issue - tail light out. And the driver's license was out of state, and had expired, they took the guy in, and he thought he'd been caught on something, and the detective ran his fingerprints, got the same hits the Sheriff in Bertha's town did, and now, he's in custody.

And the Detective decides to go fishing and asks, out of left field really, 'So, why'd you kill that man in Nebraska? ' And the guy goes, 'Which one?'

(He shakes his head, still can't believe it)

So the detective gets the guy talking, and he confesses to not one or two, but six murders to start!

And then they ran the prints again, and suddenly, it was like Christmas...well, maybe that's a bad analogy, it was like not winning, but solving a lottery.....because this guy had been killing people for over 25 years!

When they told him he was gonna fry, the guy just laughed. He told them he would give details for over ...(hard to say)....over 100 hundred unsolved cases......amazing.....

But only if they didn't kill him....if he fried, the dead people...and their families, would never know.

So......in exchange for the names and the information.....they let the bastard live....I guess it just proves what they say....knowledge is power.

It took literally months to unlock the mysteries.......eventually, there were over 123 confirmed murders. The reason he had never been caught? He never stayed around long. No one ever got to know him......one day, two at most, and he'd be gone......and the dead person, gone, too. He never left the murder weapon, never was seen with the dead people.

He would say, ' Some people like movies, some people like pizza, I like to kill people.'But Bertha was different. She was nice to him, made him apple pie like his mother used to do. And nagged him to wash his hands, which he never did unless she caught him! Bertha .....was the only time he stayed.....and he stayed for a month before he killed her. A month in which he helped her on the farm, and when she had a cold, he went into town and shopped for her, and paid her bills.....including the one at the brand new County Water office.

Because Bertha was nice, and my friend here is very smart, and very thorough, and has a little OCD ...and some weird dreams......we caught someone who without doubt would have killed again, until the day he died, or was stopped.

There were 123 murders attributed to this guy, all unsolved, except for one. The one I wondered about....the one where the drunk had gotten sent away for a crime he was too drunk to remember, too drunk to remember because he never committed it. A guy who had been in jail for over 12 years, for someone else's murder.When I went to see his daughter, to let her know what was happening, because releases take time, I found out that his wife had died.

And his daughter said to me, 'Mom always thought he was innocent, but I knew better.'

But he was innocent! I told her.

'No he wasn't' she said to me- 'he was guilty- guilty of being a drunk. If he hadn't been drunk, he would have remembered what happened.....or even, he would never have been there with other drunks. So, he may be innocent of the murder, but to me, he'll always be guilty.'

He got out of jail, and I still consider him to be one of that guys victims.

Like the families and friends of the dead people....But at least, at least this one time, we could help a little, solve a mystery….. let people know…… who done it.

(He takes a book from his pocket, opens it and reads)

And the LORD said to Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?And the Lord said, "What have you done? The voice of thy brother's blood is crying to Me from the ground.…

(He turns to go, stops, looks back)

And that, my friends, is why I became a detective.I am my brother’s keeper.

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Note: A few words about 'free' - all these monologues are protected under copyright law and are free to read, free to perform and video as long as no money is charged. Once you charge admission or a donation, or include my work in an anthology, you need to contact me for royalty info.

Author

Janet S. Tiger’s award-winning plays and monologues have been produced internationally and are currently in popular anthologies in the United States and Canada.